'Instant Humus'?
The Scientist says "well, not exactly, but OK, kind of"
This word 'humus' leads to a lot of confusion. I've used the term 'instant humus' here to indicate
the kind of effect worm castings can have on the performance of soil it is added to.
I'm excited about my Vermicycling plan, but
I don't want to slip into over-hype mode. Am I justified in suggesting that worm castings can
deliver 'instant humus'?
What is Humus? Well, that depends on if you are talking to a soil scientist or a gardener. To the
scientist, it is
"the organic, non-cellular, long-lasting component of soil".
This is a precise
definition which lets the scientist "do the math". Scientifically speaking, Humus is
"completely degraded" organic material,
meaning that it came from the cellular material of the original compost's feedstock, but - and this
appears to be critical - it has been converted to a substance which is no longer cellular. It's
as if you started with a bunch of tiny eggs and you end up with a mixture of the whites and yolks and
eggshells, except processed by the bacteria so that the egg-stuff is no longer what it was when
it started. Scrambled but not cooked, yet chemically altered; degraded organic stuff.
In the short term, after castings are added to the soil, the nutrients are used up, leaving . . . humus.
(My research leaves me with that understanding. I'd like to verify this one on the forums.)
So it is non-cellular, but it also is long-lasting. This seems counter-intuitive:
it stays in the
soil because the plants never use it up. Yet the more of it the better!
The Gardener says "well, close enough. You get the same effect."
To the gardener, humus is
the quality the soil takes on when it is properly balanced and is nourished by organic matter
from compost.
I think it's safe to say that you cannot create soil which contains humus without using
compost. Nature might be able to, but people can't. (I'll be checking the accuracy of this statement.)
We are lacking in applied research both on a scientific and a practical basis, but my research indicates
that worm castings are so much more than "worm poop". From what I can tell,
worm mucus is a critical part of the package: it seems to be providing the seed culture for the
microbiotic network that is formed and found in humus-rich soil. Presumably, each little casting-particle
has a coating of mucus, and placed in some kind of mixture of clay and sand (and in artificial soils,
peat) with other organic matter and moisture, the microbial net colonizes the soil.
Speaking of Peat Moss, according to the Scientist's definition, Peat is Humus. It meets the definition
as organic, non-cellular and long-lasting. To gardeners, peat moss may be great but it is no guarantee
of having humus in your soil.
A Nutritional Bridge?
What seems to be happening with Humus is that it provides an exchange mechanism for the roots of plants.
It expedites the plant's ability to find the exact nutrient needed and grab it with minimal expenditure
of energy. It is about ion exchange sites and more; having all good bacteria and no bad bacteria.
I suppose that humus
could be seen as 'bedding' for the 'right' bacteria to work with plant rootlets. Just a personal theory.
I am not an expert on this subject. I'm not sure that there are very many people who are.
We'll see; there are probably lots of practical knowledge folks out there but I've not been
gardening as much as I should have, not until the last year or so. When I was 10-11 years old I was
always out in our vegetable garden and those years were by far our most
productive years. The cucumber patch alone was awesome. :-) mmmmmm Bread-and-Butter Sweet Pickles . . . .
So anyway, that's another
thing I aim to find out: Is there solid scientific data or dependable rules-of-thumb for Humus?
I'll update this page as developments occur. Research on all aspects of Vermicomposting is ongoing.
That reminds me, I almost went the whole page without mentioning the
mailing list. Almost. :D
If worm castings can initiate 'Instant Humus', then my gosh, people, this is the highest and best
type of carbon sequestration possible. I'm going to suggest another new definition
for this particular carbon path: 'Superquestering'. (I believe
'vermicycling' is new to the lexicon, as is 'Wormgineer' and 'Wormgineering' and others.)
Also, 'Worm Poop' seems very much less than attractive, so we have the more polite term 'worm castings', but
we need to remember to explain that to the newcomer. The general term for the output of a general worm bin
seems easy enough, so I'll do another one.
- Superquestering
- The conversion of the carbon contained in Food Waste into Vermicompost, making that carbon
maximally available and so causing lush growth of CO2-consuming, food producing plants.
- Vermicompost
- The final product from Vermicomposting: Worm castings (the polite term for "worm poop")
and partially decomposed organic material - and all the mucus, enzymes, bacteria and
who-knows-what-but-plants-love-it that comes with it.
So-called "pure" Vermicompost contains no partially composted material, and so is nearly all castings.
Either form can arguably be said to be the best possible plant fertilizer.
